HS Football: Wreckers finish strong once again

WESTPORT -- Don't be surprised if the powers that be at Staples High School partition the CIAC to allow the Wreckers football team to play all of its games in late October and early November.

After all, over the course of the past four seasons, Staples has posted a 17-1 record in games played from Oct. 27 on during the 2011-14 football seasons.

This season, Staples won four straight to turn a 3-4 season into a 7-4 campaign.

"Here's one thing we didn't want to do," said Staples head coach Marce Petroccio. "What we didn't want to do at 3-4, was we didn't want to quit on the kids and we didn't want the kids to quit on themselves. We kept coaching and they got better. They did a tremendous job."

Back-to-back losses to Danbury (35-24) and New Canaan (35-2) left the Wreckers at 3-4, but wins over Trumbull (37-0) and Bridgeport Central (45-12) built some momentum.

Then, a 45-13 victory over a Norwalk team that could at least match-up physically with the Wreckers, proved to be the cherry on top of its momentum building stretch heading into the team's annual Thanksgiving Day clash against Greenwich.

Staples won that game, too, 38-21 to finish at 7-4.

"That's a resilient bunch," said Petroccio. "They came to practice every day, and I said this all year long, they worked hard, they believed in the system and everything we did. I feel proud of the fact the kids never gave up and on Thanksgiving saw the fruits of their labor.

"We had a lot to be thankful for and a lot to be proud of," Petroccio added. "Our record might not indicate what we wanted, but it was one of our better, more gratifying seasons."

The Wreckers -- 8-3 in 2013 -- lost a ton of skill players and it wasn't easy finding players to step up and replace those right away.

Then injuries in key spots started showing up as dings in the armor, if you will.

Seniors Teddy Coogen and Trevor Shearer both saw time at quarterback, but it was only when Ethan Burger -- a sophomore -- emerged as the Wreckers go-to runner that the team suddenly had an identity.

"Ethan Burger has done a tremendous job for us," said Petroccio. "And you've only seen the tip of the ice burg with him. It's always good when you have a sophomore back run for 1,000 yards."

Plenty of other key players are set to return, as well, including the likes of Jackson Ward, Ryan Fitton, and Colin Hoy on offense and three quarters of the team's defensive backfield along with Evan Gilland and Jack Griffin.

Fitton also punts and kicker Paul Tricarico tied the state record for most field goals in a season (12) and is six away from matching the career mark of 18.

That's plenty of talent to come back and build around.

"Let me put it to you this way," Petroccio said. "The weight room is going to be packed on Monday. It'll be exciting and the kids are going to be aggressive with the weights. You don't have that when you lose on Thanksgiving. It takes a while to get their motor going again, but these kids are excited to keep going."

Even if the season starts in August and games are played in September.